We the People's approach to social studies
mirrors young people's paths toward independence, the focus following a natural progression from self to family to world communities. As the focus broadens from the local to the national arena, students discover how in our diversity we are citizens of one nation, acting within a complex world.

Integrating Content.We the People has two overriding goals: first, to convey a body of knowledge that integrates history with economics,
geography, civics, and culture in a way that students want to read and understand; and second, to equip
students with specific skills that will help them become involved, informed citizens.

Integrating Assessment. As we “raise the bar,” setting higher academic expectations for all students, it is important that we also re-examine our means of evaluating student
progress. With We the People, Houghton Mifflin is committed to providing an innovative yet solid and
manageable system of assessment -- one that reflects substance and depth, even in the early grades. The aim throughout is to find out not only what students have
learned, but also whether they are able to apply what they know to situations in the everyday world.

Integrating Real Life. This is a series that encourages
students to discover that social studies is about us, real people and real events interacting in real time. It is
a series that, by weaving together the past and present, makes history an active rather than a passive discipline.
It is also a series that gives teachers every reason to enjoy teaching an extraordinary true-life adventure --
one that conveys all the facts, leading characters, and background necessary to the familiar plot, and reveals
the whole story as an incomparable resource for developing informed, responsible participants in the society of
tomorrow.